Legislation continues to work through the ASUN senate as session enters home stretch

Last week’s senate meeting may not have had any legislation on the table, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any working its way through the system. Senators brought up several pieces of legislation during their reports last week: below are three of those bills.

BILL #1: NEW PROPOSED TECHNOLOGY FEE INCREASE

Technically a resolution, it was proposed by Sen. Makayla Ragnone of the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources. The resolution encompasses a proposed $2 fee increase that would pay for new technology in classrooms around campus. Currently $7, the fee pays for both WebCampus and facilities like computer labs, in addition to projectors and computers in lecture halls and classrooms.

The increase would add $30 in fees per semester for a student taking 15 credits, netting the university an extra $1 million annually.

“To become a research university, you need to have that

modern tech,” said Associated Students of the University of Nevada President Caden Fabbi. “It’s a necessary issue on our campus … these are steps that we can take to solve these problems.”

BILL #2: BETTER CAMPUS LIGHTING

Proposed by Sen. Alex Crupi of the College of Engineering, the bill would aim to improve lighting around campus so that all of campus might be as well-lit as the newly erected William N. Pennington Student Achievement Center. Crupi’s plan would in-

corporate better lighting into the university’s master plan, which covers the next several years of the university’s development.

Though Crupi’s bill implies that lighting on campus, and by extension safety on campus, is somewhat lacking, Fabbi disagreed.

“Though everyone talks about campus safety, to be honest, I haven’t seen a lot of action on it in the past few years,” Fabbi said.

Fabbi added that, in his opinion, the lighting situation on campus is not all that bad and implored students to explore other campus safety options, such as Campus

Escort or the Campus Cadets, if they feel unsafe walking at night.

BILL #3: RAISING ASUN SENATOR PAY

Sen. Sam Bruketta of the College of Engineering is working on a proposal that would raise the pay for ASUN senators. ASUN passed a referendum nearly 10 years ago that allowed the senate to raise its own pay via legislation. Even so, the senate has yet to actually enact a raise since that time.

“I was a senator myself, and I certainly felt that I was underpaid for the amount work that [I] did,

but it’ll certainly make for an interesting debate,” Fabbi said.

Senator pay is currently tied to credit hours and raises naturally with raises in tuition, as per ASUN’s bylaws.

All of these efforts will make their way to the senate floor in the coming weeks as they work through the various senate committees. Only the last bill, regarding senator pay, is currently in committee.

The news desk can be reached at jsolis@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @TheSagbrush.